Blockchain Technology meets Cloud Computing

The many advantages of the blockchain make it a good solution to the bottlenecks faced by some existing technologies. Combining these advantages with traditional cloud computing technologies will promote some breakthroughs in the field of blockchain-based distributed cloud computing. Application, laying the foundation for large-scale applications.

In recent years, blockchain has attracted widespread attention as an emerging technology. Blockchain can be used in a wide range of applications, including payment, identification, cloud computing, item traceability, gaming, voting, medical, and more. Many traditional technologies can also play a greater role in combination with blockchain technology. For example, in the traditional cloud computing field, combining cloud computing and blockchain can achieve a more efficient, economical, safer and more reliable distribution. Cloud computing.

Cloud computing and the problems it faces

Cloud computing is an Internet-based computing method. In this way, shared hardware and software resources and information can be provided to various terminals and other devices on the computer as needed. Cloud computing is another big change since the big computer-to-client-server transformation in the 1980s. Users no longer need to know the details of the infrastructure in the "cloud", without having the appropriate expertise or direct control. Cloud computing describes a new Internet-based approach to the addition, use, and delivery of IT services, often involving the use of the Internet to improve dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources.

However, there are still many pain points in the development of cloud computing technology.

The existing cloud computing market is extremely centralized. The market share is dominated by a few technology giants relying on its highly centralized server resources to monopolize the entire cloud computing market. With the help of market forces to enjoy high profits, the price of computing services remains high. BOINC (Berkeley Open Network Computing Platform) is currently the most mainstream distributed computing platform, used in many mathematics, physics and other disciplines, but because it is based on the computing resources of volunteers distributed around the world. The distributed computing platform lacks enough volunteers to contribute computing power.

A good platform for distributed cloud computing

The idea of ​​a desktop grid is to collect underutilized computer resources on the Internet and execute massively parallel and distributed applications on a distributed virtual supercomputer at minimal cost.

Desktop grid computing technology has three functions that make it a good platform for fully distributed cloud computing: the first is resilience, if some nodes fail, the calculation can continue to run on other working nodes; the second is efficiency, even if computing The nodes are versatile, and the application still gets the best performance. The third is easy to deploy, any node can be used without a specific configuration, even those at the edge of the network. This makes the desktop grid, including traditional high-performance computing clusters, cloud infrastructure, and computing resources such as PCs, the perfect solution for a combined hybrid infrastructure.

However, there are still some important problems in the desktop grid, such as the difficulty in calculating the contribution of each node to the network, and thus the lack of incentive mechanism, it is difficult to match the demand and computing resources.

The emergence of blockchain technology can solve these problems well, such as providing a provable consensus, traceability and credit mechanism through a contribution proof agreement.

Distributed cloud computing based on blockchain

A blockchain-based distributed cloud computing infrastructure will allow access to the most competitive computing infrastructure on demand, securely and at low cost. Distributed application DApps can automatically retrieve, find, provide, use, and release all the computing resources, such as applications, data, and servers, through a distributed cloud computing platform. By simplifying access to the server, distributed cloud computing dramatically reduces the heat loss of the data center while making it easier for data providers and consumers to get the computing resources they need.

Traditional blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, rely on the Workload Proof Mechanism (PoW) to ensure that token transactions occurring between participants on the blockchain are verified by the encryption challenges employed by a large number of nodes. The distributed cloud computing based on blockchain can adopt the contribution proof protocol, that is, the behavior of the tokens between the participants is triggered by activities such as providing data sets, transferring files, performing calculations, and providing professional services in real time.

Therefore, a new protocol is needed to prove that the contribution has occurred accurately and that the corresponding token transaction can be made on the blockchain. We call this consensus mechanism a contribution proof mechanism. There are several platforms that use similar protocols such as GridCoin, FatCom, and FileCoin, which allow for building consensus between blockchain and out-of-chain resources. For example, GridCoin presented research evidence to reward volunteers who donated some computer time to biomedical research and explored great scientific calculations such as the universe. In comparison, proof of contribution will be more versatile, allowing for more behavior to be verified.

A matching algorithm can be used in a distributed system to match a resource request with a resource supply through a related description. When designing a distributed cloud platform, the matching algorithm is a basic building block in resource configuration. It basically solves the problem of "Can I run this task on this machine?" We use the iEx.ec blockchain storage smart contract to describe the characteristics of computing resources, such as memory capacity, CPU type, disk space, and so on. Some contracts describe the requirements for running a task or deploying a virtual machine instance (such as minimum disk space, memory, GPU operation requirements, predictive management procedures, etc.). The matching description language has been detailed in some academic papers and has been applied in software.

In a distributed system, the scheduling algorithm allocates some tasks to execute on the relevant computing resources. The scheduler is an important part of the distributed computing system, and the performance of the application depends mainly on its effectiveness. A particular challenge faced by the scheduler is to design multi-standard scheduling, where multiple strategies are used to select computing resources and scheduling tasks.

The technology of distributed cloud computing based on blockchain is not only in theory, but many applications using these technologies, such as Golem, iExe, cSONM, etc., have made some progress. Golem hopes to build a decentralized GPU computing resource leasing platform at Ethereum; cSONM is building a universal decentralized supercomputer; French blockchain technology company iExec is a provider of all computing resources (computing service providers, data providers) Business, application provider) provides a trusted platform for resource sharing transactions. Incorporating a unique Contribution Proof Consensus Agreement and Intel's latest Secure Trusted Technology (Intel SGX) to ensure platform trustworthiness and data security on the platform, supporting multiple areas from high performance computing to the Internet of Things s application.

The many advantages of the blockchain make it a good solution to the bottlenecks faced by some existing technologies. Combining these advantages with traditional cloud computing technologies will promote some breakthroughs in the field of blockchain-based distributed cloud computing. Application, laying the foundation for large-scale applications.